October Data on the Collapse of Live Music Shows — a Weak Pulse
In early April 2020, the fates of thousands of professional musicians were cast into the wind. Recent data from www.hearby.com our AI-driven live music tracker shows that live music performances for October across North America are at 9% of volumes before the outbreak. In effect, most musician & venue earnings have fallen to the same levels.
We’re not talking hardship to rich rock stars at the apex of the pyramid here. We’re talking about tens of thousands of professional musicians, that form the pyramid beneath & without which, the apex can’t even exist. You have to be really good to earn a living from music & you have trained all your life to do this. Today, most musicians earn that living from performances rather than recordings — thanks to the changes wrought by the streaming industry. Not playing gigs means not getting paid & that’s hardship for a lot of people. That collapse has also thrown hundreds of thousands of venues, bar & restaurant workers in the heart of our neighborhoods into dire financial jeopardy. Many of those businesses will never re-open.
Hearby data shows some hope for the return of live music, that is after all, inevitable on the other side of this. An uptick of live shows started over the summer in August & September as musicians & venues adapted to survive with outdoor, socially distant dining & musicians performing to pull people back in. Our data shows restaurants & brew pubs are at the heart of this resistance and those are often in the suburbs, while the larger city centers venues remain shuttered. Outdoor events, drive-ins and pop-ups flowered tentatively in the warm weather but a winter threatens retreat & that is seen in the fall in October show numbers compared to September. What will happen next? No-one knows, but we will be tracking what live music does occur, & where across the 70 North American metro regions in the coming months. Check in with www.hearby.com to find out where you can enjoy live music safely.
